Today is the Raspberry Pi's fourth birthday, and along with birthday wishes we're welcoming a new board. Almost exactly a year after the arrival of the Raspberry Pi 2, say hello to the new Raspberry Pi 3, Model B.

Last month we started a maker profile video series; we began with our very own industrial furniture maker Joe. As a member, Joe, has made some amazing furniture using reclaimed parts from industrial machines. One person’s trash is this maker’s treasure and he has found some gems. These images are just a few pieces of Joe’s amazing work. From end tables made with old gears to dinning tables made from a bowling alley, he has it all.

We are delighted to have been accepted to showcase our projects at Maker Faire UK. Being the largest Maker Faire in the UK, its a huge gathering of all sorts of makers. We always have a great time talking to the public and seeing our fellow hackerspaces.

This will be our 4th year showing casing at the event. Last year we were trilled to find other Irish makers also there (Mint Tek). We hope this year will be no different.

This year we will be showing a range of wearables and a arduino powered panel clock. We are super proud that our project from last year is now featured on the Maker Faire UK home page. Can you tell which one it is ?

Join us this coming Tuesday, March 1st for a special presentation! Starts at 8 pm.

Erin “Robot Grrl” Kennedy is currently a Studio[Y] fellow at the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto. She is an avid robot maker. Her current project is Robot Missions, which aims to enable makers and humanitarians to collaborate on improving the environment with the use of a robot platform. She participated in Fab Academy 2015 where she prototyped unfolding CubeSat robots. She launched a kit named RoboBrrd for people to learn how to build a robot character. Erin is the host of the Robot Party, a Google+ Hangout where robot builders join internationally and show the robots they are working on. She was recognized as an Intel Emerging Young Entrepreneur and won a gold medal in the RoboGames, the robot olympics.

RoboBrrd didn’t start out as the chirpy character it is today. Almost like nature, it evolved through iterations and iterations. I’ll give a history of how RoboBrrd began as a popsicle stick robot, to what it became with a lot of help from the maker community. This involved learning circuit layout, having boards made, learning CAD and laser cutting designs.

Fast forward a bit, and I’ll share the robot creatures that followed (like BotBait), the adventures had through Fab Academy and now what I’m currently working on as a part of Robot Missions while at Studio[Y] and MaRS.If you’re a maker working on a hobby project, but can’t really envision how it could become replicated for 100 other people, this talk will be helpful to you. If you enjoy robotic creatures and seeing ways that digital fabrication can be used, this talk will be enjoyable for you.

On January 16, 2016, Nova Labs members were treated to a wood milling demonstration at Belle Grey Farm in Upperville, VA. The 51HP diesel powered, hydraulically controlled portable saw mill ran through the wood with ease.

Members were shown how entire trees were rough cut down to boards. The boards were then put into a solar kiln to dry for at least several months and sometimes as much as several years. Once dried the boards make it to the shop where they are used to make equestrian jumps.

Today’s feature is brought to us by Jay Peterson from Coffee House Press’ CHP in the Stacks, the publishing company’s creative-in-residence program. One of their most recent residencies is with the Givens Collection of African American Literature at the University of Minnesota. Part of the residency explores a wonderful and important new search tool to help researchers mine information related to African American history. ~Laura

Since early November 2015, artists Erin Sharkey and Junauda Petrus, co­founders of the collective Free Black Dirt, have been exploring the archives of the Givens Collection of African American Literature at the University of Minnesota as artists in residence with the Coffee House Press In The Stacks program.

Ex-Slave Narratives from Coahoma County, MS, Carrie Campbell (transcriber), 1937. Givens Collection of African American Literature, University of Minnesota Libraries.

Petrus and Sharkey were invited to be among the first users of Umbra: Search African American History (umbrasearch.org), a new digital tool dedicated solely to African American history and culture. Developed by the Givens Collection of African American Literature at the University of Minnesota in partnership with Penumbra Theatre Company, Umbra brings together the world’s most extensive digital collection of African American history, including materials from over 500 archives, museums, and cultural heritage institutions.

Petrus is currently the performance and installation artist for the Naked Stages Residency at the Pillsbury House Theatre in Minneapolis. Sharkey is an MFA candidate in the creative writing program at Hamline University in St. Paul. Since founding Free Black Dirt, they have sought to spark and engage in critical conversations through performance art, curation, and literature. The duo create original theatre and performance, host innovative events, organize local artists, and promote and support emerging artists of color in the Twin Cities.

In approaching the Givens and Umbra collections, the pair were particularly interested in the works of writers and artists like James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Audre Lorde, Sekou Sundiata, Ntozake Shange, Zora Neale Hurston, and Claude McKay, but also explore a broad range of cultural and historical themes, including family history, urban agriculture, Afro­futurism, theatre, jazz, American and Caribbean history, African cosmology/spirituality, and Astrology.

“Erin and Junauda’s work gives us a chance to learn more about the Givens Collection, too,” says Cecily Marcus, Givens Collection Curator and the director of Umbra. “We go into the Givens vault looking for pamphlets and ephemera related to radical feminism and come out with materials even we hadn’t seen before.”

Through routine blog dispatches and a public performance, Sharkey and Petrus help shine a light on the value, breadth, and accessibility of the Givens Collection and the creative/intellectual possibilities opened up by Umbra search tool.

On February 18th at 7:00 pm, Sharkey and Petrus presented an interactive and dynamic recap of their findings and learnings. Their presentation was followed by a panel conversation featuring curator Cecily Marcus, Tana Hargest, Executive Director of the Givens Foundation for African American Literature, and Jay Peterson of Coffee House Press.

Free Black Dirt’s residency and presentation are part of In The Stacks, a program developed by Minneapolis ­based publisher Coffee House Press. The two­ year ­old program has placed writers and artists in residencies at the Walker Art Center, American Craft Council, Quatrefoil Library, Poets House, American Swedish Institute, The Bakken Museum, and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts to create new bodies of work and to encourage artists and the general public to think about libraries as creative spaces.

Say goodbye to the drudgery of rolling your garbage bin out to the curb. With Colin Furze’s remote controlled “wheelie bin”, you can (safely?) pilot your vile waste to the curb from the warm comfort of home. I love this idea, but let’s be honest, Colin’s design is more of […]